Train-stop device.



H. R. NEVENS.

TRAIN STOP DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED s:PT.2.191s. RENEWED JULY 20.1915.

Patented Feb. 29, 1916.

Winesses THE COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 520., WASHINGTON, D c.

WALLACE TRAIN CONTROL COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

TRAIN-STOP DEVICE.

Application filed September 2, 1913, Serial No. 787,623.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT R. NEVENS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hartford, county of Hartford, State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Train-Stop Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to train stops and particularly to a portable track plate adapted to be applied to the tread of a rail for actuating the brake setting mechanism of a train through the medium of a trip arm operatively connected to said brakev setting mechanism.

The present invention involves certain improvements over the construction disclosed in a prior application, Serial No. 690,447, filed by me April 12, 1912, to which reference 'is made as illustrating the type involved herein.

My present invention has for its primary object to obviate the use of spring devices such as the leaf spring shown in that application while at the same time securing in a simpler and cheaper form of track plate all the advantages afforded by such spring construction. These and other advantages which will appear more fully hereinafter are secured by the use of my improved track plate, an illustrative embodiment of which in a form found well adapted to practical use, is shown in the annexed drawings.

The construction and operation of my device will be more fully set forth in the specification which follows.

Throughout specification and inthe drawings which form a part thereof like numerals of reference are employed to inclicate corresponding parts and in these drawings: Figure 1 is a view showing a wheel with a tripping device set behind it, a rail, and a track plate constructed in accordance with my invention on the rail in advance of the wheel. Fig. 2 is a similar view of the track plate and a portion of the wheel and rail illustrating the position the parts assume when the wheel passes and before the trip arm carried therebehind has passed. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the track plate and a fragment of the rail. t is a vertical section on the line li of Fig. 1, and Fig. 5 is a detail perspective view of the flange engaging dog of my track plate.

As described in my prior application my tripping device is mounted on brackets 1 Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 29, 1916.

Renewed July 20, 1915. Serial No. 41,019.

bolted to the frame of a pony truck or any other convenient truck on a locomotive tender or car.

On the bracket 1 are bearings in which the ear brake valve actuating mechanism 2 is ournaled. To this a tripping arm 3 is connected which hangs directly behind the Wheel. This disposition of the trip arm relative to the rail and wheel I have found by repeated tests to be the most desirable as reducing the liability of accidental actuation by impedimenta along the trackway to the minimum, but its adaptation to practice involves certain problems not presented where the trip is located to one side or in advance of the wheel. The most serious of these problems is that of finding a track plate which will lower to permit the passage of the wheel but will immediately return to trip actuating position in time to strike the following trip arm. In my former application above referred to I showed and described atrack plate having a tripper bridging the rail. and set on a leaf spring which lowered when the wheel passed over the tripper but rose in time to return the tripper to interfering position relative to the trip arm. This construction while satisfactory was open to the objection that the spring after repeated compressions might lose some of its resiliency and might fail to return the tripper to interfering position fast enough to catch the trip arm. Moreover, one of the conditions imposed by certain of the railroads upon which I have tested my inventions is that there shall be no springs used in the track plate which they shall adopt and use upon their lines. This condition has led me to devise my present track plate which does away with the use of a spring while retaining all the advantages thereof and in addition involves certain other features of advantage not afforded by such spring construction.

My improved portable track plate consists of a centrally opened supporting frame adapted to be applied to and straddle the tread of the rail preferably near a rail oint, and having spaced tread faces which form a part of the rail tread; and a trip actuating member rockingly mounted on said support between said spaced tread faces and having spaced transverse contact faces one of which is brought into interfering position relative to a trip arm on the train when said memher is rocked by a wheel passing thereover. This supporting frame is preferably formed in one piece and consists of two spaced tread plates 6 and 7 adapted to lie on the tread of the rail and form a part thereof. Said plates terminate in tapering ends 8 over which the wheels run without pushing the plate along its rail. Depending from the plates are vertical side pieces 9 which hang down below the tread of the rail, and are connected near their bottoms by longitudinally extending arms 10 the whole providing an open rectangular frame adapted to straddle a rail.

The frame as a whole is temporarily fas-' tened to the tread so that it can not be thrown or tripped off by the impact of the wheel WV. At opposite ends of each arm 10 an ear 11 is struck up to which is pivoted a latch piece or dog 12 having a fold 13 encircling the ear to which it is attached by a pivot let. In placing the frame upon the rail the latches 12 will be thrown up butas soon as the flanges of the rail are passed they will drop down as shown in Fig. 4t, thus locking the plate on the rail against displacement by the impact of the wheel.

The trip actuating device consists of a centrally opened movable frame pivoted to the arms 10 of the temporarily fixed supporting frame intermediate of their ends by pivots 15 and disposed so as to form a connection between the two tread plates 6 and 7. This frame is preferably made in one piece and comprises two end plates 16 and 17 which span the rail and form a part of the rail tread as well as providing contacting surfaces for the trip arm to strike against. .They are connected by arms 18 which gradually converge down to the pivots 15 which connect them to the arms 10 of the fixed supporting frame.

The tripper plates 16 and 17 are normally disposed as shown in Fig. 1, in which figure that plate 16 which lies nearest the approaching wheel W is contiguous toand in the same plane with the adjacent tread plate 6 of the temporarily fixed supporting frame. These two plates 6 and 16 therefore provide a practically continuous tread surface upon which the wheel W runs as it approaches in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 1. The opposite tripper plate 17 is inclined upwardly at an acute angle to the approaching wheel and lies in a plane above that of its tread plate 7. The engagement at the pivots 15 is sufiicient to overcome the force of gravity tending to draw down this tripper plate and said plate will. remain in this position until depressed by the weight of the wheel whereupon it will lower to the plane of the tread face 7 and form therewith a practically continuous tread surface. The movable frame therefore forms a connection between the two spaced tread faces 6 and 7 of the temporarily fixed supporting frame. lVhen the wheel runs onto the tread surface 6--16 its weight will tend to keep the plate 17 up until the wheel reaches it, whereupon it will lower to the plane of the tread face 6. As this plate 17 lowers, the first plate 16 will rise as the trip roc kson its pivot 15 as a fulcrum and will assume a position corresponding to that originally occupied by the plate 17 in which position it will be in the path of the trip arm 3 to actuate the same and through the mechanish 2' open the relief valve of the brake setting mechanism to apply the brakes and stop the train. This position is illustrated in Fig. 2. The movable frame as a whole may therefore be likened to a see-saw movement of which varies the effective. disposition of the tripper actuating surfaces 16 and 17. The downward movement of the tripper plates 16 and 17 of the movable'frame is limited by the lateral extensions 19 of the vertical sides 9 which he even with the upper edges of the arms 10 and act as stops to prevent movement past a certain point.

The track plate in operation is carried back by the flagman whenever a train .is brought to a stand still. If an oncoming engineer fails to signal his recognition of the fiagmans warning the plate is slipped onto the track with either trip actuating surface in position shown in Fig. 1. WVhen the train runs on to this plate it is stopped as described.

l/Vhile I have shown, discussed and claimed my invention in the terms of its application to the present day railway systern, it will be understood that it may be applied to any system of this nature and that the terms used are capable of being so construed.

Various modifications in the construction and form of my invention, coming within its spirit and scope may obviously be resorted to if found within the limits of the appended claims.

What I therefore claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A tripping device comprising a pair of spaced contact elements, a support for movably mounting said contacts in the path of the wheels on a rail and an operative connection between said movable contact members effective upon actuation of one contact element to impart to the other element an actuation in the opposite direction.

2. A tripping device comprising a rail engaging support, a pair of spaced contact elements movably mounted thereon and dis- 3. A tripping device comprising a rail engaging support, spaced contact members movably mounted thereon and disposed across the rail tread and having opposite directions of travel, and an operative connection between said members eiiective to provide equal opposite motion thereof relative to the plane of the rail tread.

4. In a tripping device a support comprising a tread member and side members, said tread member being cut away between its ends to expose the rail tread, a tripper comprising a pair of lateral members disposed one on each side of the rail tread and having a pair of spaced contact members disposed therebetween and pivoted intermediate of said contact members to the side members of said support.

5. In a tripping device a support comprising a tread member and side members, said tread member being cut away between its ends to expose the rail tread, a tripper comprising a pair of lateral members disposed one on each side of the rail tread and having a pair of spaced contact members disposed therebetween and having bearing on said side members intermediate of said contact members.

6. A device for automatically setting air brakes of railway trains comprising a support and a tripper having a bearing between the ends of said support, said tripper having spaced contact members oppositely disposed relative to said bearing and positioned across the rail tread.

7 In a tripping device a support comprising a tread member and side members, said tread member being cut away between its ends to expose the rail tread, a reversible tripper having a bearing intermediate of said ends and including a pair of spaced contact members pivoted to the side members of said support, one of said contact members normally lying contiguous to and in the same plane with an end of the tread member and the other of said contact members normally lying in a plane above that of the other end of the tread member.

8. In a tripping device a support comprising a tread member and side members, said tread member being cut away between its ends to expose the rail tread, a reversible tripper having a bearing intermediate of said ends and including a pair of spaced contact members pivoted to the side members of said support, one of said contact members normally lying contiguous to and in the same plane with an end of the tread member and the other of said contact members normally lying in a plane above that of the other end of the tread member, said last named contact member actuatable under the weight of a wheel passing thereover to lower to substantially the same plane as the rail tread and bring the first named end of the tread member into the path of a trip on the train.

9. In a portable tripping device, a support, rail engaging devices pivoted to said support and a tripper having a bearing between the ends of said support.

10. In a portable tripping device, a support comprising a tread member and side members, rail engaging devices pivoted to said side members, and a tripper having a bearing between the ends of said tread memher and pivoted to said side member.

11. In a portable tripping device, a support comprising a tread member cut away between its ends to expose the rail tread, and side members, rail engaging dogs pivoted to said side members near the ends of said tread member, and a tripper pivoted to said side members between the ends of said tread member.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HERBERT RUSSELL N EVENS.

Witnesses:

GEORGE B. RAWLINGS, IDA S. CLEMENT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

